Wednesday, May 18, 2005

This is the way Revelations ends - not with a bang, but with a whimper

Can't believe I watched for 6 weeks to end with: the anti-christ is born & the bad guy maybe escapes. What was the point of the entire show to give us such an anti-climactic ending? If they're trying to hook me for a sequel, fugghedaboutit.

On more substantive note, watched Specter & Leahy tonight on CSPAN2 (truly a great civic resource). Very respectably Senators who honor and respect the Senate as an institute & who could come up with some civil resolution if the noise were cut away. Unfortunately that's not the case & we'll see within a fortnight whether the "nuclear option" will unfold. Will be sad to see it happen even if I believe all judges should be given an up-or-down vote. I can hope that this will mean that next time a Dem is president, the GOP will not be able to block nominated judges via "blue slip" or committee or other parliamentary technique. Still it is sad to see the comity possibly destroyed over a handful of judges that no one will remember in 10 or 20 years - how many appellate judges can anyone name outside of Learned Hand?

I predicted that some 11th hour compromise will take place, but I would never actually wager money on such an iffy prognostication. JJ believes the wimpy GOP will fold (that from a conservative), while KK believes no compromise.

1 prediction I will stand by: even if the GOP wins this battle, the rabid right will still not be happy in the end. They now want Reagan appointed Kennedy's head. They were pissed at the GOP appointed judge in the Schiavo case. They are still angry with Nixon appointed Blackmun for his Roe v. Wade majority opinion. They are pissed at Lawrence vs. Texas decision despite the GOP nominated judges voting 5-2 in favour of Lawrence. What they actually want, they can't have: states are not going to outlaw homosexual anal sex again, abortion will not disappear, some other hot button case will appear that they'll lose despite any victories in the short term future. Not sure what their ideal fantasy world will be, but it's just that - a fantasy. Time to accept that the world has changed - you're on the wrong side of history on gay rights & ultimately americans will prefer comity to confrontation on most family & personal matters.

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